“Getting a leg over?”
“Sex, Ben! Sex helps. Jaysus, I’m Catholic—don’t make me say it again.”
Ben felt the urge to laugh for the first time in days. “I got it.”
“Are you fecking happy to be alive or not?”
He thought past his anger. “Yes. I am glad to be alive.”
“Then move on,” Brigid said. “Face your anger and accept that it’ll be a part of you for a while until you work through the shite you need to, and move on. Don’t let it keep holding you back from having the life you want.”
“How do I forgive her,” Ben asked, “when she refuses to apologize?”
“She’s not going to. Ever. From Tenzin’s perspective, she was doing exactly the right thing.”
He swallowed hard. “I can kind of see that.”
“Then you just forgive her. Not for her but for you.”
Ben couldn’t speak. He was remembering a moment years before, a quiet confession in the sacred space between waking and sleep.
I have been a hero and a villain in the same moment. If you live long enough, you’ll understand what that means.
“Just forgive her,” he murmured.
“Tenzin’s not perfect,” Brigid continued. “Or perfectly wise. Feck, my husband is a thousand years old, and he’s still clueless at times. He makes mistakes because he’s learning to love me. And there’s never been a me before, so it’s a new situation for him. It’s the same with you two. There’s never been another Ben and Tenzin. The relationships you’ve had, the relationships she’s had… They teach you, but only so much. Every person is a new world.”
“So I just forgive her.” Something about saying the words took a weight off his heart.
“Aye, you do. And the anger might come back, so you might have to repeat it to yourself every day for a year. Or a decade.”
“Yeah.” He cleared his throat.
“But you—of all the people in her life—know who Tenzin is. You know her better than anyone else does. This was not malice. She did the only thing she could.”
He closed his eyes and nodded. “I have to let it go.”
“Like a fucking party balloon.” She whistled. “Whoosh. Float away.”
Ben could feel the dawn coming. “I better go; I’m going to fall asleep soon.”
“Call me after you’ve settled some things.”
He rubbed his eyes. “You tired of being my guidance counselor yet?”
Brigid laughed. “You’re like my little brother, Benny. I’m sure when you figure this all out, I’ll think of a way you can repay me.”
“I’m not going to give you any of my guns.”
“Fuck yer guns, lad. I want one of Tenzin’s swords.”
Vano opened the door to Tenzin’s trailer and tossed her inside with her feet and hands still bound, the metal net wrapped tightly around her body. She smelled the visitor in the trailer, but she didn’t say a word to the vampire currently gloating from the open doorway.
“What do you think you’re doing?” She asked from the floor. “I will be able to escape from this.”
“Not before you fall asleep at dawn.” Vano glanced at the horizon. “Which should be coming shortly.”
Tenzin had no desire to share her secrets with Vano. If he thought she slept, she wouldn’t spoil the notion. “Do you think Ben won’t come looking for me if I’m not around tomorrow night?”
“By tomorrow night, it won’t matter.” Vano watched Tenzin’s face. “You’re going to disappear. But don’t worry; I have no plans to kill your little pet. Doing that would attract the wrath of Penglai Island by mistreating a favored son. I have my businesses to think about.”
Tenzin, on the other hand, could probably go missing and possibly no one would realize she was gone for a century or two. If they got rid of her things, even Ben might assume she’d just taken off.
“You’re wrong,” she bluffed. “My absence will be noted.”
“If it comforts you to think so.” He patted the edge of the doorway. “Sleep well, Tenzin. Such an undignified end for such a famed immortal. If I was sentimental in the least, I might feel for you.”
“No, you wouldn’t. You consider me an outsider and only have empathy for those people you consider your own.” She shrugged as much as the metal net would allow. “I often feel the same.”
“So we understand each other.”
“Only if you understand that if anything happens to me, my mate will hunt you down and rip you limb from limb before he kills you.”
“Your mate?” Vano smiled. “I know young Vecchio isn’t truly your mate, just like I know that you’ve had a falling-out. Besides, the boy doesn’t have it in him. He’s soft. Pampered. Everything in this life has been given to him, even immortality.” Vano’s mouth twisted a little. “Power like that handed to someone who didn’t even want it.”
“Power like that should only be given to someone who doesn’t want it.”
“Spoken like a commander of the losing side.” Vano examined Tenzin from head to toe. “Enjoy trying to get out of the net. I imagine you’ll find it quite impossible.”
He slammed the door, and she heard a lock snapped on the outside.
Tenzin began to twist and turn. Vano was right to a point. The metal net was thin and flexible; every time she tried to grab it, it slipped away. When she pushed, it flexed.
How irritatingly clever. She’d have to find out where he’d acquired it.
Nevertheless, it wasn’t something she could break through quickly even with her immortal strength.
“Are you going to make yourself useful?” Tenzin asked. “Or are you enjoying the show?”
René stepped out from the shadowed corner where he’d been hiding. “I admit, I am enjoying this.” He slid his hands in his pockets. “Remind me; why I am staying in your caravan during the day? Oh, that’s right, because you asked me to.”
“Because you owe me,” she said. “Who bailed you out in Singapore last summer, René? That’s right, it was me.”
“When this is over, you’re never bringing that up again.” He curled his lip and knelt next to her. “I don’t even know what this is made of.”
“It is some kind of metal fabric.” She touched a piece between her fingers. “It’s clever. Finely woven, which makes it harder to manipulate. I can’t get enough leverage to tear it.”
“Quite ingenious. How long do you think it would take you to get out without me?”
“More than an hour. Do you have scissors? Wire cutters?”
“Scissors, no. Wire cutters?” He pulled out a familiar-looking red knife. “I believe this has a small saw attached. That should do.”
“Well done.” She heard the knife tear through the fabric over her wrists. “Cut that and then get my feet.”
“I’m taking this fabric.”
“It’s yours.” She twisted her wrists and snapped the plastic ties that bound her hands. “I wouldn’t suggest it for bedsheets.”